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OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma National Guard's 120th Engineering Battalion is leading the charge in retention as the first battalion in the state to reach its fiscal year 2024 reenlistment goal.
"We reached it in June," said Staff Sgt. Bryce Wakefield, retention noncommissioned officer for the battalion. “The battalion's mission was to get 62 people to extend in (fiscal year) 24, and they are currently exceeding that number.”
Several factors contributed to the battalion's success, particularly the support from leadership.
"We had a lot of buy-in from our battalion leadership," Wakefield said. "Our battalion commander, in particular, echoed the adjutant general’s (TAG) directive. He was very on board with whatever we needed to do to get people to extend."
With support from the battalion’s leadership, they were able to adopt a Soldier-first approach to foster a positive culture, encouraging Soldiers to continue their military career with the Guard.
"Just taking a real Soldier-first approach to it instead of just kind of like a numbers approach," Wakefield said.
This approach included flexibility with drill schedules to promote healthy work-life balance and personalized career guidance.
Recruitment and retention is essential to maintain the readiness and effectiveness of today’s National Guard.
"You want to keep your experienced people," Wakefield said. “By keeping them you’re funneling all the more experienced people through and with the new people coming in, you have the experienced people to build up that younger force, meaning the motivation kind of builds upon itself.”
Financial perks and programs for Oklahoma Guardsmen prove effective as incentives for reenlistment.
“A big seller was of course the Education Assistance Program, the state tuition waiver,” Wakefield said. “TRICARE is another one and a lot of people don’t really understand just how great TRICARE is, especially if you have young kids or a young family.”
While the OKNG has plenty of education and financial benefits available to Soldiers, sometimes reenlistment perks can be a simple bit of fun or a unique experience.
Looking ahead, the battalion plans to build on its momentum to further enhance the mission readiness of the OKNG as a whole.
“Get to know your people, build those connections, be transparent with them," Wakefield advised.
For more information about programs, resources and incentives available to OKNG Soldiers, please visit: https://ok.ng.mil/ARNG-Retention/
| Date Taken: | 08.06.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 08.29.2024 15:33 |
| Story ID: | 479762 |
| Location: | OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 55 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Oklahoma National Guard's 120th Engineering Battalion Leads the Way in Retention, by SPC Danielle Rayon, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
